He said the state must step in to help prevent the next generation being crippled by conditions such as anxiety, anorexia and obesity.

One in 10 children has a mental health problem, and a poor relationship with parents is among the main causes, Proffesor Ashton told The Times.

He said: "We've done remarkably well in terms of producing live, healthy babies over the last 60, 70 years, but, by the time children are leaving school, between 10% and 15% of them are in trouble emotionally or mentally, and (suffer from) things like obesity, eating disorders, anxiety and stress.

He said the state must step in to help prevent the next generation being crippled by conditions such obesityCredit:
TOBY MELVILLE

"So having produced healthy babies we then set about neglecting them. I can't imagine a sensible farmer doing this with livestock."

He added that to prevent children from turning to online porn, parents should talk to their children about sex at the breakfast table.

"We've still got the Victorian prudery legacy and if you don't answer children's questions openly when they're small, to create the building blocks for more mature conversations later on, they won't ask you things when they get to puberty," he said.

A report has been launched today by the Faculty of Public Health urging early intervention in families.

Hospitals are making more than 21,000 admissions each year for self-harming in teenagers, up from 12,000 a decade ago.

Admissions for eating disorders have risen from fewer than 2,000 to almost 3,000 a year, mainly in the under-20s. More than 50 million antidepressant prescriptions are issued each year, a figure that has doubled in a decade.